Around the Quincy Invitational track: Unity’s Barry back in title form, Chargers display depth, QHS’s Thomas sweeps throws

QUINCY — Saturday’s Quincy High School track and field invitational at Flinn Stadium featured a photo finish, dominant team performances and several personal records.

The Quincy boys and girls teams took home team titles by 55.5 and 151.5 points, respectively. Macomb’s Kylan McMillen and Camp Point Central’s Curtis Rigg provided the closest race of the day, with McMillen leaning across the line to beat Rigg by .01 seconds.

Here are some other takeaways and notable results from Saturday’s action:

Unity’s Barry up to usual tricks

Saylor Barry, the reigning Class 1A state champion in the long jump and returning state medalist in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, is off and running — and jumping — in 2025. She won the long jump at the Illinois Top Times meet, which is the de facto indoor state championships, and enjoyed outdoor success Saturday.

The Mendon Unity junior won Saturday’s long jump event with a jump of 17 feet, 11 inches, the new longest mark in the state this season and 2 feet, 11 inches ahead of Quincy junior Isabella Reinhardt, who posted a personal best jump of 15 feet.

Barry set a new personal record at 12.31 seconds to win the 100 dash and outran Quincy’s Anna Venvertloh by .84 seconds to win the 200 dash.

Chargers’ consistency leads to top-two finish

No Ian Bentzinger, no problem for the Illini West boys team. After graduating Bentzinger, who qualified for the Class 1A state championships in the 100 and 200 last season, the Chargers showed on Saturday that they have the depth to remain amongst the top teams in the area.

Illini West scored 116 points to finish second to Quincy. The 4×800 relay team of Chase Mudd, Keagan Walker, Parker Walker and Coleman Gilpin outpaced Quincy by nearly 16 seconds. Mudd won the 800 run by two seconds over Quincy’s Cameron MacDonough, and Gilpin won the 400 dash in 57.12 seconds. Freshman Kinnick Bliss and sophomore Wyatt Pence finished first and second, respectively, in the 300 hurdles. 

The Chargers posted eight other top-five finishes on the track, two in the jumps and two in the throws to pick up valuable points.

Rigg, Herring share title in razor-tight long jump

The top three finishers in the boys long jump were separated by just .25 inches. Curtis Rigg and Quincy’s Joshua Herring posted identical jumps of 18 feet, 8.75 inches, while Rushville-Industry’s Carter Fretueg finished third at 18 feet, 8.5 inches. Macomb’s Jaron Petty finished fourth, just 4 inches behind Fretueg.

Blue Devils, Panthers sweep throwing events

Quincy sophomore Marlee Thomas won both the girls discus and shot put events. She set a PR with a 107-foot, 11-inch throw in the discus and was the only athlete to eclipse 10 meters in the shot put with a throw of 33 feet, 1 inch.

On the boys side, a pair of Central throwers won events. Evan Walker won the shot put at 45 feet, 2.5 inches, and Brayden Hummer narrowly beat Quincy’s Bailey Schinderling and Central’s Kwinn Wilson in the discus. Hummer’s 120-foot, 11-inch throw was just 4 inches ahead of Schinderling and a foot ahead of Wilson.